democratic leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. i have a few items i'd like to address this morning, but first i'd like to recognize our dear friend from mississippi, the senior senator, who will be delivering his farewell speech today. senator thad cochran has served in this body for decades with a sense of dignity decorum, -- dignity, decorum, and respect for his colleagues that was always appreciated but never confused for lack of conviction. when his issues were on the line, senator cochran fought for mississippi as hard as any senator. after all, he was first bitten by the political bug in his heat especially by the political bug in his run for head cheer will the gentleman yielder -- head cheerleader of ole miss. he joins that distinction with trent lott. of course, we new yorkers, eli manning, we like him, too. of course, senator cochran never stopped being a cheerleader for mississippi. now, chairman cochran and i certainly had our differences. the chairman once said i don't call a lot of news conferences. i just don't see that as a necessary part of my responsibility. well, we'll agree to disagree on that one. but there are many things we have in common. there is a particular part of his legacy i admire. after hurricane katrina buffetted his state, he convinced recalcitrant lawmakers to deliver aid to the gulf coast, far exceeding the administration's request, and he did it by working members on his side of the aisle and across the aisle, behind the scenes. that's how he earned the nickname the quiet persuader. it's a skill i greatly respect after going through something similar when hurricane sandy hit my home state of new york. at the time, chairman cochran was the ranking member on the appropriations committee. he and his staff were extraordinarily helpful throughout the process. ultimately, senator cochran voted for the sandy relief bill when many of his colleagues opposed it. i'll never forget that. under his stewardship of the appropriations committee, we have just completed the text of an omnibus spending bill which i will address in a moment, but once the bill passes, it will be a fitting legacy that senator cochran will retire with another bipartisan accomplishment under his belt. i wish him and his family the best, and i thank him for his distinguished service to the state of mississippi, to his beloved country, and to the united states senate. he will be missed here in the senate. now, mr. president, i'm pleased to say that the four congressional leaders have reached an agreement on the omnibus spending bill. that's now public. it didn't happen until last night. it took a long time. painstaking weeks of negotiations. more than a few of which went past the midnight hour. before i go further, i want to thank leader mcconnell, speaker ryan, and their staffs, leader pelosi and her team, chairman cochran, vice chairman leahy and the appropriations committee staff and many others for all the hard work that went into this bill. now, it certainly doesn't have everything democrats want, and it contains a few things democrats aren't thrilled about. the same is true of our republican friends. that is true of all compromises. if each of us stood on our hind legs and said if i get everything i wanted, i'm voting no, we would be totally paralyzed. that happens far too often in this body. but somehow on this appropriations bill, this omnibus, that didn't happen. there is a remarkable spirit of give and take in the room. overall, we democrats are very happy with what we have been able to accomplish on a number of very important priorities to the middle class in america. infrastructure, education, opioid treatment, mental health, child care. for nearly a decade, the middle class in this country has suffered from a needless and self-imposed austerity, limiting investment of all of the things that create good-paying jobs and improve the working conditions of americans, improve the lives of americans. this spending bill, this spending agreement brings that era of austerity to an unceremonious end and represents one of the most significant investments in the middle class in decades. so many in the middle class are frustrated. they don't know why. well, one of the reasons is quietly but unfortunately quite decisively this congress cut back on the very ladders that helps the middle class climb, in education and infrastructure, in health care. it was cut and cut and cut, and the help that the federal government has given to the middle class since the progressive era of the early 1900's was taken away quietly but decisively. it's back. it's going to help middle-class people stay in the middle class. it's going to help those aspiring to the middle class climb that ladder and get there. it's really a good thing, and i'm excited about it. and as the republican leader mentioned, it robustly funds our military, giving our men and women in uniform the resources they need. it also improves our ability to respond to wildfires. it makes a critical down payment on election security, provides a reliable pathway for the essential infrastructure projects in our country, and makes an incremental but important progress on the issue of gun violence, a debate this congress must resume soon. so again, that era of austerity which so hurt middle-class americans is coming to an unceremonious end because this bill represents one of the most significant investments in the middle class in decades. for these reasons, i'm confident that this agreement will pass both houses of congress, hopefully with comfortable margins, hopefully in a bipartisan way. again, i thank the republican leader for his part in reaching this agreement, and i look forward to passing this legislation as soon as possible. and now a final issue. while we're talking about agreement and bipartisanship, i don't agree with president trump on a whole lot, but today i want to give him a big pat on the back. he is doing the right thing when it comes to china. for many of us, senator graham and i, since we went and visited china over a decade ago, we have watched china rapaciously take advantage of america, of american jobs, of american workers, and of american intellectual property. china's ruthless in how they go after us. they do it quietly. they do it with a smile. and unfortunately, previous presidents, democrat and republican, just stood by as china did what it did to us. president trump is exactly right. this afternoon to propose a plan designed to punish china for its most flagrant trade abuses. i have called for such action for years, been disappointed by the inactions of both president bush and obama. i'm very pleased that this administration is taking strong action to get a better deal on china because china has stolen and extorted the intellectual property of american companies for years without repercussion. our intellectual property are our family jewels. the american way of openness, of thinking, of debate has created the kind of place where great thinkers come, think of great ideas, and those ideas are often translated into millions of middle-class good-paying jobs. well, china knows this, but china's not a free and open society. to achieve the kind of gains and advancements in technology and in biomedical science and in so many other things, they have to steal what we do. sometimes by buying our companies. sometimes by cyber theft. sometimes by just these joint ventures, and they tell american firms you can only come to china if you give away your intellectual property. so china's taking huge advantage of us. intellectual property is the lifeblood of emerging industries and the good-paying jobs they provide. the american advantage of intellectual property is one of the main things that will keep us number one economically in this century, but not if we allow it to be stolen and taken advantage of, and the country that does that more than any other is china. intellectual property is the lifeblood, as i said, of emerging industries and the good-paying jobs they provide, so it's impossible to overstate the cost of i.p. theft to our economy and our workers. this sentence pains me. i think about it often. general keith alexander, four-star general, nonpolitical, he was in charge of cybersecurity in america, and here's what he said. china's theft of intellectual property is, quote, the greatest transfer of wealth in history. we're letting them do it. the crown jewel of america, our free and open society that allows great thinkers to create great ideas and products, they steal it, and we do nothing. that's one of the things, mr. president, that aggravates me more than most others. finally, president trump is doing something, unlike his predecessors, so i commend him. the w.t.o., they have been grossly inadequate for this problem. we cannot continue to ignore flagrant cheating by china, whether w.t.o. likes it or not, so the administration's announcement today is a leap forward. if this new push is going to be successful, we need our allies to work with us. germany, italy, france, britain. open and free societies, unlike china. they know their stuff is being stolen, too. join with us. if we are a united, strong front against chinese activities on intellectual property, we can force them to change their ways, but they won't do it by persuasion, they won't do it by smiling, and frankly, they won't do it by diplomacy when some of our diplomats come in and say we need china for this thing. ignore the economic theft. ignore the economic disadvantage. so i support what the president's doing. when it came to the tariffs on steel and aluminum, i supported the thrust, i supported the president's instinct, but it wasn't focused enough on china and heard too many of our other allies like canada where we have a trade surplus. i hope the president corrects his thinking on that. but here this is aimed at china in one of the ways china hurts us the very most. it's smart. it's good. i salute our trade rep light lightheiser for pushing this issue. i salute our commerce secretary ross for pushing this issue. and by the way, to help support the administration's efforts to crack down on china, we will fully fund the ustr's trade enforcement fund at $15 million in the omnibus. so let's make sure that china starts playing by the rules, and on intellectual property, certainly at the top of the list. today's announcement by the president will be a great start in that direction. democrats, republicans, americans of every political ideology, every region in the country should support these actions.
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